Visits to Exchange Platforms This Fall: Binance and Coinbase are in the Lead

As we are well into the first month of winter, let us have a look at the situation with some of the top exchange platforms this past fall, more specifically this November:

Binance

The biggest exchange platform in the world by market cap was founded by Changpeng Zhao last year, and it has been making headlines ever since. Not only does the company, which is now based in Japan, trade over 150 crypto coins and have its own digital currency Binance Coin (BNB), but now it is also set to develop its own Blockchain. The platform had close to 17 million visits last month, each one averaging just over 30 minutes.

Coinbase

One of the top exchanges in the world, Coinbase, was founded six years ago and is based in San Francisco. While the platform is striving for quality, not quantity, with barely 10 crypto coins on display, it is attracting a substantial client base of dedicated traders all the same, especially the ones operating from within North America. Last month the platform saw an impressive 15.5 million visits, each one averaging 25 minutes.

Poloniex

Poloniex was founded in 2014 in Delaware, USA, by Tristan D'Agosta. Since February this year, it has been owned by the DLT company Circle, which is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. While Poloniex, which also has an office in San Francisco, doesn't have nearly as many clients as the first two platforms, its grip on the market remains strong nonetheless: almost 5 million visits last month, each one averaging almost 40 minutes.

This well-known platform headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, was established in 2012. Since its business is conducted on the local over-the-counter and peer-to-peer basis, most of the platform’s trading volumes are not even reflected on CoinMarketCap. In no way, however, does it take away from the website’s popularity, especially among those wanting to invest into Bitcoin in countries with hyperinflation, namely in Latin America. Last month saw close to 4.7 million visits to the website, each one averaging a lengthy 45 minutes.

Yobit

This crypto exchange platform based in Moscow, Russia, was founded in 2014. So far, feedback in the community has been mixed, with many claiming that the platform is legit and some calling it a scam. No doubt, the platform's supposedly fishy aura has a lot to do with where the platform is based: Russia is no walk in the park when it comes to business, so distinguishing fact from fiction can be difficult. Be that as it may, the website does have its loyal following, which resulted in 3.5 million visits last month, each one averaging approximately half an hour.

Bithumb

Bithumb is based in South Korea. The only other Asian platform on our list today after Binance—Bitfinex, HitBTC, and Huobi having been excluded from this research—Bithumb advertises itself as Korea's #1 Virtual Currency Exchange. With a market cap of around 1.4 billion USD, its grip on the industry is firm. The platform had close to 3.4 million visits last month, each one averaging under 15 minutes, making Bithumb our supposed leader in terms of speediness of service...or perhaps it is simply Asian punctuality.

Tether Ceding Ground to Competitors as Stablecoin Wars Pick Up Steam: Research

A new DataLight study shows that Tether (USDT) remains the biggest dollar-pegged coin out there. However, its dominance has recently hit a brand-new low, with other stablecoins challenging its first place.

The crown is slipping

Tether, which occupied a whopping 99.75 percent of the stablecoin market at the beginning of 2018, has been gradually losing its hegemony throughout the year. On Dec. 23, its dominance recorded a new low at 71.45 percent. Circle’s USDC is in second place with 8.75 percent, while TrueUSD (TUSD) takes third place with 7.94 percent. Notably, Dai (DAI), Tether’s long-term challenger, is lagging behind other upstarts.
Overall, there are more than 57 stablecoins in the mushrooming sector (in various stages of development).

Stablecoin wars

Tether’s shrinking market share is primarily attributed to the fact that this niche is becoming more and more competitive, and each new stablecoin fights tooth and nail for its place in the sun. Last year, digital coins pegged to fiat currencies became one of the most recent trends in the industry, and crypto unicorns such as Gemini and Circle have stepped up their game by presenting their own stablecoins.

Recently, Paxos Standard and Gemini were accused of manufacturing arbitrage opportunities to streamline the adoption of their coins.

Japanese Yen Is On Track to Overtake US Dollar in Bitcoin Trading: Research

According to a new DataLight study, the US Dollar (USD) is the most traded fiat currency for Bitcoin (BTC). The Japanese Yen (JPY) comes in second place, trailing the dollar by a very small margin (48.67 percent and 45.38 percent, respectively).

Will the US Dollar be overtaken?

The USD enjoys the status of a global currency that is accepted throughout the world, so it’s dominance in the cryptocurrency market is expected. However, the fact that the Japanese Yen is breathing down its neck is far more surprising. With a miniscule 3 percent difference, there is a good chance that JPY could become the most popular currency traded for the US dollar in the nearest future. Japan is enticing for crypto enthusiasts because of its Bitcoin-friendly regulations and a fast pace of merchant adoption.

Together, the two dominant currencies account for a whopping 94.05 percent of the total trading volume.

Other currencies

While the lion’s share of the market is occupied by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen, one should also pay attention to the tiny piece of the pie that is left. The Korean Won (KRW) and Euro (EUR) take third and fourth places with 2.03 percent and 1.85 percent of the volume share, respectively.

The British Pound (GBP), the Polish Zloty (PLN) and the Russian Ruble (RUB) are among the top 10 entries. The Turkish Lira (TRY) sneaked onto the list with 0.16 percent (the country saw a spike in Bitcoin trading after the diplomatic spat with the US).

According to recent data published by cryptocurrency-oriented research platform DataLight, the number of TRX Twitter mentions reached a brand-new peak on Jan. 9. Tron has been on a roll recently with a slew of announcements that were also spiced up by some controversies.

A new peak

DataLight has been tracking Tron Twitter mentions since Jun. 25, 2018. Jan. 9 turned out to be historic for the community given that Tron managed to accumulate a whopping 52,722 mentions. The previous record, which has been recently shattered, was set on Dec. 24 with 46,523 mentions. As U.Today reported earlier, that was also the day when the network hit an important milestone: 1 mln user addresses.

Is there a pattern?

There is a rather distinguishable pattern – the peak of Twitter activity corresponds to a huge influx of new addresses. For instance, the Tron network recorded 41,133 new addresses on Dec. 24 (the highest number since the beginning of the tracking period). Subsequently, it coincided with the peak of Twitter activity. Tron’s current Twitter hype peak was followed by 29,413 addresses that joined the network the day before.

Tron’s ruling the roost

Tron CEO Justin Sun is one of the most active crypto personalities on Twitter with more than 734,000 followers. While critics call his style ‘Trumpian’, he keeps celebrating every milestone, possibly contributing to the project’s success. Tron (TRX) is currently sitting at 9th place on CMC, having recently surpassed Bitcoin Cash offshoot Bitcoin SV.

This year has been one big crypto drama unfolding before the eyes of those who have anything to do with the world of Blockchain. It started as the December 2017 Bitcoin bubble was coming to a pop, followed by a period of gradual recession, then stagnation, and finally a sharp dive towards the end of 2018, ironically, the scandalous finale being the exact opposite of the situation from twelve months ago.

But not everything is a gloomy as it might seem, for there are, it turns out, some winners here after all, and not just among devious traders, but, more interestingly, among the crypto coins themselves.

So, let us have a closer look at the latest market cap stats from this year, organized quarterly. This analysis was conducted independently and in the following way: daily market cap figures were collected, then manually turned into monthly averages, and finally into quarterly means. The three current leaders were examined: Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), and Ethereum (ETH). Here is the end result:

1st Quarter

The first quarter of 2018 started well for everyone. Bitcoin was at around 177.5 billion USD, Ethereum at over 66 billion USD, and Ripple at over 46.5 billion USD. The difference between BTC and the other two was vast; the difference between ETH and XRP was minimal.

2nd Quarter

In the second quarter, there was a decline for everyone. Bitcoin dropped to around 140 billion USD, Ethereum to around 60 billion USD, and Ripple to around 27 billion USD. Because BTC’s drop was not yet its biggest (21%) and ETH’s was the smallest of all three (9%), it was XRP that suffered the most: it dropped almost 42%, and the gap between ETH and XRP increased substantially from the first quarter.

3rd Quarter

The drop continued. Bitcoin fell to around 117 billion USD, Ethereum to around 34 billion USD, and Ripple to around 16 billion USD. BTC’s decrease of 16% was not as heavy as in the second quarter, while XRP’s rate of decline remained the same (around 41%). In this quarter, it was ETH that lost a great deal of vitality: its grip on the market decreased by almost 44%, which led to a less pronounced gap between ETH and XRP.

4th Quarter

This quarter is comprised of the months of October, November, and December. While the figures were obviously heavily influenced by the more recent events, these are, of course, quarterly aggregate averages which are meant to reflect an overall situation this year. As a result, the figures from Q4 differ from today’s averages of 71 billion USD (BTC), 15 billion USD (XRP), and 12 billion USD (ETH) by the very nature of this statistic.

So, in this final quarter of 2018, Bitcoin dropped to around 90 billion USD (23%), Ethereum fell to around 16 billion USD (a nosedive of 53%), and XRP actually rose to around 17 billion USD (6%). Ripple’s comeback was possible thanks in parts to XRP’s performance earlier in the fall, and in parts because of BTC’s violent plunge in November which gave XRP a sudden boost from investors and traders alike. Consequently, the gap between BTC and the other two market leaders became proportionally larger, and XRP overtook ETH as the second most valuable currency in the world.

Conclusion

The general trend has a very logical feel to it. At this point, there are two main scenarios: further down or back up. Whichever one prevails is unclear. What is clear, however, is this:

1) The values of major coins (both market cap and price) will in any case, sooner or later, see their former glory and probably even surpass previous records;

2) Unless Ethereum futures become a major game changer, Ripple may prove to be an unbeatable rival for Ethereum to claim back its position as the second most valuable cryptocoin;

3) Such new trading features as Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds, which are pending approval by SEC and now gaining in popularity, and security tokens may just alter the crypto landscape so drastically that all other predictions could become largely inadequate in the long run.

With 2018 coming to a close and famous Jingle Bells already ringing in the distance, it’s time to look at this year’s latest crypto stats. While many vitals are still being kept down by the stubborn bears of the economy, it turns out that the number of crypto ATMs has doubled this year compared to 2017.

Number of ATMs

With only 3 crypto ATMs in 2013, their number grew almost a hundredfold in 2014, taking the total to around 300, increased by a further 150% in 2015, taking the total to over 450, then doubled in 2016, taking it to over 900, increased by a further 215% last year, taking the total figure to almost 1950, and finally more than doubled again this year, giving us today’s impressive total of 4051 crypto ATMs worldwide.

Type of ATMs

With these ATMs, the situation is as follows:

Of the 4051 crypto ATMs in total, all but five of them support Bitcoin (4046); around 60% support Litecoin (2421); almost half of them support Ethereum (1993); close to 35% support Bitcoin Cash (1356), i.e. before the fork and subsequently BCH ABC and/or SV thereafter; almost 20% support Dash (729); 3% support Monero (120); 2% support Dogecoin (79); and just under 2% support Zcash (67).

Conclusion

Bear in mind that crypto ATMs are not just ATMs in the traditional sense of the word. Crucially, they allow users not only to receive money like any other machine of the kind, but also—by its very nature—conduct fiat-to-crypto as well as crypto-to-fiat exchanges on the spot. In other words, one can momentarily trade cryptocurrencies through these ATMs by either putting local fiat in (i.e. ‘deposit cash and buy crypto’) or taking local fiat out (i.e. ‘sell crypto and withdraw cash’).

The former option is arguably more common in many third-world countries among those wishing to escape hyperinflation, while the latter is arguably more popular in first and second world countries among those looking to spend some of their savings.

Granted, not all of these ATMs are spread widely as very many are concentrated in the crypto hubs of the world, among them places like San Francisco, Amsterdam, and Buenos Aires. Be that as it may, the overall positive trend is there, and where it takes us exactly we shall see soon enough, in 2019.